UP to provide free care to seriously ill poor

Lucknow, March 28 (IANS) Uttar Pradesh will provide free medical care to the poor suffering from serious ailments like kidney related infections, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav announced here Wednesday.

"In the last Samajwadi Party government, we made efforts to ensure medicine at hospitals and free medicare to all and I will take this further," Yadav said on the occasion of World Kidney Day.

Diseases do not differentiate between the poor and the rich, the chief minister told a gathering participating in a marathon to create awareness on kidney ailments.

He said he was witness to many from the downtrodden class falling prey to kidney ailments and ultimately dying due to expensive treatment. He assured the gathering that the state government would do all it could to ensure that the best possible treatment was available in the state and that it was affordable as well.

He later interacted with doctors and experts of the Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences and directed Health and Family Welfare Minister Ahmad Hasan to take necessary steps in this direction.